October 28, 2013 | Talana Lattimer

ASA, along with our Washington Chapter and campaign partners, will be hosting a public stakeholder meeting on Tuesday, October 29 in Yakima. The goal of the meeting is to build a consensus about what patients want to see in the recommendations for implementing I-502. We need a united community to move forward with patient rights protected.

The future of medical cannabis in Washington State has been uncertain since 2011, when then-Governor Gregoire used her line item veto to strike an ID card system and dispensing center program from SB 5073. Access points have had to conform to a collective model to provide medicine to patients, which is tolerated in some but not all areas of the state. To make the situation even tenser, the DEA continues to raid operators, and Washington’s US Attorneys continue to prosecute patients. Now the medical cannabis community is facing an even more uncertain future, as the state considers recommendations that would effectively eliminate the existing medical cannabis program.

The Liquor Control Board has been tasked with submitting their final recommendation about the future of medical cannabis on January 1, 2014 to the legislature. On October 21, the working group issued initial recommendationsthat take a very punitive approach to Washington's medical cannabis program.